Is Jaden Hardy Ready for a Bigger Role?

In the absence of Dante Exum, Hardy will have to shoulder extra minutes this season.

Oct 17, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Jaden Hardy (1) passes past Milwaukee Bucks center Anzejs Pasecniks (18) during the first half at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

After leading the Dallas Mavericks in preseason scoring, guard Jaden Hardy looks poised to take on a bigger role for Dallas this season. In 26.3 minutes per game, Hardy has averaged 15.0 points, albeit not on the best overall efficiency. He shot 40.8% from the field, though he did shoot over 40% from three, hitting 11 of his 27 attempts from beyond the arc.

As was announced earlier, backup guard Dante Exum will miss three months with a wrist injury that required surgery, meaning that reserve minutes at the position will have to be distributed amongst a mix of Hardy, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Quentin Grimes. However, considering Dinwiddie's struggles so far this preseason, it may be wise to go more in the direction of a player that isn't just younger like Hardy, but one that might be better suited to this offense.

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Hardy is, of course, not without flaws. He has had problems with turnovers so far in his career, but he has clearly made improvements in the offseason, sporting a positive assist-to-turnover ratio in preseason of 4.5 to 2.8. He had a total of 18 assists to 11 turnovers, good for a rate of 1.63 assists/turnover.

Considering he may have to play some minutes at lead guard this year when Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are on the bench, this is a positive development for Hardy. When he played primary initiator reps last season, he typically played rushed basketball – for example, when Doncic and Irving were out against Minnesota last season on January 31, he turned the ball over five times.

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It should be noted that Hardy, who is just 22 years old, spent the majority of his time on the floor last season as the off-guard. According to Basketball Reference, 69% of his minutes came at this spot. His turnover breakdown is interesting as well, as 32 of his giveaways were bad passes, versus 19 of which came on possessions where he lost the ball. This will have to improve if he's playing point guard for the Mavericks, but again, he seems to have shored things up to an extent based off of what he's done in the preseason, where he looked more comfortable than he did at times last year.

Hardy is still very young, but he will be thrust into a role this season where his ball handling and decision-making will be of the utmost importance. If he can continue to improve his distribution ability, he could compete for even more floor time and become the backup guard that the Mavericks need this season.

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